


two lonely souls

by aliaaaaaa



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Credence is Their Son, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Married Couple, Softness and Tenderness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-16
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 12:36:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12108870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliaaaaaa/pseuds/aliaaaaaa
Summary: Newt and Percival might not have the most romantic love story in the world; but it is theirs and it is enough.





	two lonely souls

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know what this is, my friend. but I have the urge to write softness for my boys so here. this is unbeta so expect some errors.

“Mommy, how did you meet Papa?”

Newt stops folding the clean laundry to look at his son — Credence is rolling on the bed, kicking the pillows unto the carpeted floor. His tiny legs barely avoiding Dougal who is perched on the edge of the mattress.

“If you want me to tell you the story about how I met your Papa then you should stop kicking the pillows and put them back in their place,” Newt says, hiding his smile when Credence immediately scrambles to pick up the pillows and put them back on the bed.

“Good job,” Newt praises, smiling at Credence who is beaming at him.

“Story time, Mommy!” Credence shouts, patting the spot next to him on the bed. Newt shakes his head fondly, quietly spelling the clothes to fold before he makes his way to the bed.

Newt settles on the bed with Credence snuggling on his side; his face peering up at Newt with open interest. So much like his father with the way his dark lashes fanning softly against his soft cheeks.

“Alright, where do I begin?”

“From the start of course!”

Newt grins and leans down to kiss Credence’s forehead. “Of course.”

Newt takes a deep breath and starts.

“Papa and I met six years ago in New York. He had just recovered from being captured by a dark wizard and I was on my way to Arizona to take Frank the Thunderbird home.”

His meeting with Percival was coincidence really. Nothing romantic about it. In fact, it happened because the Niffler had just robbed a jewellery store and Percival was on his usual route doing his morning patrol when he stumbled upon Newt holding the wriggling Niffler in his arms; he was covered in gold and rare gems from head to toe.

“Papa arrested you on your first meeting?” Credence interrupts and Newt gapes like a fish out of the water.

“Well… I did tell you that it wasn’t romantic at all!” Newt argues, his face heating up in embarrassment when Credence tuts at him like he always does to his son whenever Credence does something naughty.

“Do you or do you not want to hear the rest of the story?” Newt asks exasperatedly. He is pouting a bit because right now Credence is doing a perfect imitation of Percival’s I Am Disappointed In You face and Newt doesn’t need that from anyone other than his husband thank you very much.

Credence doesn’t answer, but he does snuggle closer until his face is resting on Newt’s chest.

Newt huffs a fond sigh before he continues.

“Yes, your papa did arrest me because he thought that I robbed the store.”

He actually had to spend a night in the basement cell; his suitcase being taken away from him for further inspection. He was miserable. Annoyed about being arrested and having no chance to defend himself. Worried over his creatures being in the hand of a total stranger.

“But come morning, your Papa came to my cell to ask me some questions,” Newt remembers wistfully.

“What kind of questions?” Credence asks back, tiny fingers gripping unto Newt’s shirt lightly.

Percival had asked him about the Niffler and whether Newt was using it to rob the jewellery store. He denied everything of course; telling Percival that he wasn’t poor to begin with. The creature had the same habit as a magpie; couldn’t even keep her sticky paws to herself whenever she saw something shiny even when the thing had no value whatsoever.

Percival didn’t believe him of course.

So Newt asked Percival to conjure a useless shiny thing and let the Niffler loose around the cell. He would prove to this snobbish officer that he wasn’t telling lies.

In which Percival believed him after he set the creature on the floor and not only did the thieving scoundrel took the shiny silver pin, she also went for Percival’s scorpions pins and wand before scurrying away from the cell.

“Niff has always been a menace, has she?” Credence asks, looking over at the drawer where the Niffler is counting her loot.

“She always has and it’s a problem that even I don’t know how to curb,” Newt sighs and lazily spells to call his gold ring back to his palm.

“But she brought you to meet with Papa,” Credence observes. “So she is useful.”

Newt smiles fondly at his son and ruffles his floppy hair. “Aren’t you a clever boy.”

It was true that Niff had brought him and Percival together. It happened a lot of time whenever he was in New York. It was like Niff was trying to matchmake Newt and the obnoxious man by the way that she kept escaping to MACUSA and straight to Percival’s office.

It was infuriating as it was embarrassing because Percival kept on teasing him about having no control over the Niffler while at the same time he could easily charm a Nundu to be tame.

By now the sight of Percival cradling the Niffler in his arms was so common that whenever Newt realised that the creature was gone from the suitcase, he would take his time to go to MACUSA. He took the opportunity of Percival babysitting the Niffler to check out the underground black market at the dock; cataloguing the many rare creatures being exploited before leaving a tracer for him to come back later to help them.

“Did Papa get angry that you leave Niff with him for so long?”

Newt chuckles lowly; swallowing his laughter when he remembers the look on Percival’s face as he told Newt that he had to go the whole of MACUSA with the thief in his arms, apologising to them for the things that the creature had stolen.

“Papa was a bit upset with me, yes,” Newt answers; shifting his body to the right to make room for Dougal to snuggle on his other side. “But then I asked him out for dinner.”

Credence looks at him with renewed interest; his round eyes going bigger with the prospect of something romantic.

And it was a bit romantic if you overlooked the fact that they ended up having dinner at a small diner instead of a fancy place because the chances of something valuable being stolen by Niff were lower here. Still, Percival insisted of using the sticky charm on Newt’s suitcase; locking the latch in its place to prevent Niff from getting out.

It was a bit romantic if you overlooked the fact that Percival had lectured him about the Statue of Secrecy for solid one hour or that he had lectured Newt about the importance of blending in with the No-Majs.

It was a bit romantic if you overlooked the fact that Newt had raised his voice at Percival about the importance of preserving magical creatures and their eco-system because without them around the magic force would be imbalance and it would make the exposure of wizardkind to the No-Majs much easier.

“You yelled at Papa?” Credence whispers in awe and Newt once again gapes at his son.

“I had to do it! He was nagging at me!”

“You’re a brave soul,” Credence says and Newt blinks.

He was brave for raising his voice at Percival; for making himself heard despite knowing that Percival would just dismiss his finding.

But Percival didn’t dismiss him at all.

The man had listened to him rant about his frustration regarding the law on exterminating creatures on sight. Percival had kept quiet when he vent about his finding on black market at the dock and how MACUSA didn’t seem to care about the creatures because they weren’t sentient.

After that, when he had caught himself, Newt apologised for being rude, for being too emotional.

“But your Papa waved my apology away,” Newt says, smoothing the sheet underneath his palm. “He asked me about the black market operation because he didn’t know about it.”

No one had told Percival about the smuggling ring in the city because there was bribery involved between the smugglers and some of the Aurors in the department.

Newt had seen Percival looking upset before when the threat of the wizarding community being exposed was too severe. But seeing Percival tracking down the smugglers with only Newt by his side was something that Newt would never forget.

“Your Papa stormed to the warehouse in the middle of the night after our dinner,” Newt tells Credence who is blinking his eyes slowly at him. “He looked so livid when he cast offensive spells on the smugglers. He looked really scary; like he was ready to strike them down with lightning which he ought to do because they did bad things to the creatures.”

“Were there many of them?”

There were only three smugglers in the warehouse. They were taking inventories of the exotic creatures; tacking on spell-it note on parts that they wanted to chop off to sell on the black market for the highest bidders.

Percival had rushed in without any backup and Newt had never seen the work of wandless spell as beautiful as Percival’s when he took the smugglers down with a swift attack; his fingers crackling with electric blue discharge, bounding the smugglers together in one wave.

“Did you help Papa?”

Newt did help Percival by checking on the creatures and making sure that they were calm.

“I couldn’t save all of them because the bad guys had did horrid things to the poor creatures,” Newt breathes softly, eyes downcast when he remembers seeing the Erumpent with its horn sawed off.

Credence makes a soft sound and Newt pulls him closer, noticing that his son’s small hand is wrapped around Dougal’s.

“Did Papa punish the bad guys?”

Percival did more than just punish the smugglers. He called out an immediate meeting in the middle of the night, rousing his Aurors from deep sleep in order to find those who took the bribes.

In the end, there were four Aurors involved with the bribing after the smugglers had given Percival the names. Newt didn’t know what he did with the Aurors; but there was a rumour going on for months that Percival Graves, Director of Magical Security had personally oversaw the Death Cell procedure on them for treason and insubordination.

“What happened after that?” Credence asks, tiny arm hugging over Newt’s stomach; pressing his face underneath Newt’s arm.

“After that Papa got more involved to shut down the black market operation in the city,” Newt recalls with a smile. “He even asked me to help him.”

“Is that why you fall in love with Papa?”

Newt hums his answer with a small smile. “One of the reasons, yes.”

“What are the other reasons?”

The others reasons were trivial for someone else but for Newt, they meant the world to him. That Percival was kind when others were cruel. That Percival was patient when others were short-tempered. That Percival was gentle when others were harsh. That Percival had looked at him like he was someone special, someone precious when others had ignored him.

Newt realised that maybe it was his own loneliness that made him nurse a crush on Percival; that it was his own desperation to love and be loved by someone that made him fall for the impossible man who was totally opposite of him.

But those things didn’t matter after all; not in the way Percival had stolen kisses from Newt after a job well done together, not in the way Percival had pushed Newt against his own desk to mark his skin with his teeth and mouth and fingers.

It didn’t matter if Newt was lonely or desperate because in the end, Percival felt the same way too; the desperation of wanting to love and be loved, the utter adoration on the man who always side-stepped the law to protect the creatures; how infuriatingly in love Percival was with Newt despite him being a menace.

“You love Papa very much,” Credence says quietly, his eyes soft around the edges.

“I do,” Newt answers truthfully because Morgana, he does love Percival.

Their definition of love isn’t conventional; it isn’t traditional in a sense.

They were just two lonely souls finding their ways together. What they have now is stemmed from familiarity, not instant connection. It stemmed from mutual respect, not from cheesy romantic love.

But maybe that _is_ love.

Subtle, soft; nothing grandly romantic. Just two souls reaching out to each other, just two bodies writhing in pleasure. Just Newt and Percival despite the odds; despite their opposite personalities. Just them building their life together, learning to understand each other beyond their hurts and their wounds.

Just two hearts finally settling after a long time wandering.

“And Papa loves you too,” Credence continues and Newt presses a gentle kiss on his son’s hair.

“I do.”

Newt turns his face to the door and sees Percival casually leaning against the threshold; a smile adorning his handsome face.

“Papa!” Credence screams in joy, reaching his hand towards Percival in an open invitation to get in the bed with them.

Percival pushes himself from the door and crawls into the bed, crowding Credence against Newt until the boy whines.

“Were you two gossiping about me?” Percival asks, his eyes flitting towards Newt who hides his face in Credence’s soft hair.

Newt can feel his cheeks flushing from embarrassment of being caught talking about his husband.

“Mommy was telling me about why he loves you,” Credence tattles, obviously pleased with himself when Percival smiles widely at him.

“Did he now?”

“Yes! He said that you were so kind to him and that you saved all the creatures from being harmed by the bad guys!”

Newt tries to hide his face in Dougal’s soft fur but the Demiguise doesn’t seem to want to help him when he goes invisible; presenting his flushed face for Percival to see.

“Your Mommy was exaggerating,” Percival says, pressing his a kiss on Newt’s warm cheek even when the man tries to hide. “He helped me a lot in catching the bad guys too. He was very clever in putting on tracking spell so that we could trace them.”

“Is that why you fall for Mommy, Papa?”

“I fall for your Mommy because he’s not afraid of letting me know that I’m wrong. That he doesn’t allow me to get all high and mighty,” Percival discloses in a whisper, gazing up at Newt who looks stunned at his admission. “He is one special person to me because he’s the only person who truly sees me for who I am.”

“Who are you, Papa?” Credence asks, tilting his head in wonderment.

Newt glances at Percival who is already looking at him with soft eyes; his heart is beating steadily. As steady as Percival’s hand in his own.

“A lost soul,” Percival answers quietly, his eyes never once leaving Newt’s face; his firm fingers never slacking in their hold. “Someone your Mommy has brought home with his love.”

Newt closes his eyes and smiles because they might not have the most romantic love story in the world; they might have argued on different matters, they might have fought on petty issues but being on this bed together right now, their hands holding each other; their son burrowing his tiny body against them, giggling away when Percival tickles his feet; this, for Newt, is love enough. 

**Author's Note:**

> if you have reached this point, thank you so much for reading! kudos and comment are really much appreciated!


End file.
